Plastic filler for shirt collars



June 2, 1959 J. J. LATTUCA 2,889,091

PLASTIC FILLER FDR SHIRT COLLARS Filed Jan. 23, 1957 INVENTOR. Y M mam A T ORNEYS PLASTIC FILLER FOR SHIRT 'COLLARS John J. Lattuca, Hempstead, N.Y., assignor to Best Plastics Corporation, Brooklyn, N .Y., a corporation of New York Application January 23, 1957, Serial No. 635,697

3 Claims. c1. 223-83) This invention relates to fillers or supports which are placed in the collars of folded shirts to prevent the collars from being crushed iii shipping boxes in which the shirts are supplied to stores; and the support can also be used by laundries in shirts which are returned to customers.

It is a common practice to supply some kind of a support or filler in the collar opening of new and freshly laundered shirts. In addition to making the shirts more attractive in appearance, the supports serve the useful function of preventing the collar from being mashed down and creased so that it no longer looks neat when the shirt is worn. Lots of different types of supports have been used, and the most common is probably the cardboard band which is placed against the inside surface of the collar and which extends around a sufficient length of the inside surface to provide a fairly good protection against crushing of the collar. Such supports are inexpensive, but they are not attractive in appearance and they are easily displaced when the shirts are handled, either in a store or when being put away in a bureau drawer at home.

It is an object of this invention to provide an improved support for the collars of folded shirts; and to provide a support that is of more attracttive appearance, more firmly held in place, more reliable in its protection for the collar, and more convenient to use, particularly in new shirts since it does not hide the shirt label or the size markings on the inside of the collar.

The invention comprises a shirt collar support which is made of plastic material, and the plastic used is transparent so that the label in the shirt and the size marking can be seen through the support. The filler is constructed in such a way that it has substantial strength even though it is made of extremely thin sheet material; and the com struction such that the support can be manufactured by vacuum forming of plastic sheets, thus making the support so low in cost that it can be used in place of the cruder and less satisfactory cardboard supports of the prior art.

The invention is made with flanges which extend under the portions of the shirt immediately adjacent to the bottom of the collar, and these flanges prevent upward displacement of the support. The forward part of the support is of special shape so as to facilitate the buttoning of the collar after the support has been put in place.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear or be pointed out as the description proceeds.

In the drawing, forming a part hereof, in which like reference characters indicate corresponding parts in all the views;

Figure l is a top plan view of a collar filler and support made in accordance with this invention; and

Figures 2 and 3 are sectional views taken on the lines 2-2 and 3-3, respectively, of Figure 1.

The support is made of a single piece of plastic and has a top wall of a size substantially to fill the cross section of an opening through a collar 12, the collar being ICC.

shown in phantom in the drawing. The support has a downwardly extending portion 14 which forms a back wall 16, a front wall 17, and side Walls 18.

At the lower end of the downwardly extending portion 14, the material extends outwardly to form flanges 20. In the construction illustrated, the flanges 20 are continuous along the entire length of the sides and front wall, but it is a feature of the invention that there is no flange extending outwardly from the lower end of the back wall 16. This permits the support'to be used in a 3 folded shirt having the back of the shirt, immediately below the bottom of the collar, extending forwardly under the opening through the collar. This is the conventional way in which shirts are folded, audit is illustrated in Figure 2 where the back of the shirt is indicated by the reference character 24.

The flanges 20 extend outwardly under the bottom of the collar 12 and under the shoulder and front portions of the shirt so as to prevent upward displacement of the support. As long as the shirt remains folded, the flanges are confined between the front and back of the shirt, and the support cannot be accidentally displaced from the shirt, even though the shirt is turned so that. the collar is facing downwardly.

In the preferred construction, the flanges 20 are of substantial width, being equal to at least the major part of the height of the side walls 18. The advantage of such wide flanges is that the same support can be used in shirts of somewhat different collar sizes. It is not essential that the support fit snugly in the shirt collar and the purpose of the support is equally Well served if the collar has some clearance from the side walls of the support.

When made with broad flanges 20, the support can be most conveniently inserted in place when the collar is unbuttoned. If the support fits snugly within :a collar of a particular size, then it is necessary to provide for convenient buttoning of the collar after the support is in place. In order to facilitate the buttoning of the collar, the top wall 10 is inclined for a limited distance toward the front wall 17, the inclined area being indicated in the drawing by the reference character 28. This construction reduces the height of the front wall 17, as best shown in Figure 2, so that the shirt collar need be lifted only slightly in order to bring the collar button 30 above the front wall 17 where the support does not in any way interfere with the convenient buttoning of the collar.

The support can be made of any clear plastic material, and is preferably made of a thin thermo-plastic sheet suitable for vacuum forming. It is a feature of the preferred construction that the top wall 10 and the downwardly extending portion 14 are imperforate so as to provide a construction particularly suitable for vacuum forming. Cellulose acetate has been found to be a particularly good material, but this is given merely by way of illustration. The sheet should be between 0.005 and 0.025 inch in thickness. This makes the support inexpensive enough to be competitive with cardboard fillers and supports, and at the same time provides the necessary mechanical strength.

The preferred construction of the invention has been illustrated and described, but changes and modifications can be made and some features can be used in different combinations without departing from the invention as defined in the claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A shirt collar filler comprising a single sheet of thin transparent plastic material having a substantially vertical side Wall extending around the entire periphery of the filler, and stiffened at its lower end around most of its length by a horizontally and outwardly extending flange and free everywhere of any inwardly extending flanges,

the lower end of the side wall being in substantially the same plane along the entire length of said side wall, and a top wall of one piece construction with the side wall and merging therewith and stiifening the upper edge of the side wall around the entire periphery of the side wall, said top wall consisting of a continuous surface of the plastic sheet covering the entire space within the filler, the tiller in plan view being of generally triangular outline with the rearward portion of the wall bowed outwardly, the forward portion of the wall being lower than the rearward portion and the top wall of the filler having a downward slope toward its forward end in accordance with the reduced height of the side wall.

2. The collar support described in claim 1, and in which the support is made of acetate plastic of a thickness between 0.005 and 0.025 inch.

3. The collar support described in claim 1, and in which the flanges extend outwardly from the lower end of the side wall around the entire length of the side wall except the rearward portion thereof where the cloth ofa folded shirt extends forwardly under the opening through the collar, the top wall of the filler over a substantial part of its area being at a level above the flanges, slightly greater than the height of the collar with which the filler is intended to be used, but the top wall near the front of the support having a limited area over which it is inclined downwardly on a gradual slope in accordance with the reduced height of the front portion of the wall to facilitate the buttoning of the collar after the flanges of the filler have been inserted under the part of the folded shirt immediately adjacent to the bottom of the collar.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,911,638 Milburn May 30, 1933 2,495,153 Wald et a1. Jan. 17, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS 468,272 Great Britain July 1, 1937 1,086,616 France Feb. 5, 1955 

